Board - Regular Meeting

They can tell us today. Call to order. Charter Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees regular meeting Tuesday, July 21, 2026, 6.30 p.m. Roll call, please.

Jen Buckley. Mark Clinton.

Here.

Chuck Cremey.

Here.

Bob Dorshevitz.

Here.

Kim Gadeka here. Sandy Grove. Here. John Stewart.

Here.

We have a quorum.

I pledge allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, July 29th.

Do we have to change the text because of the change in item number F2? Or is it okay as is?

I don't think so, it's pretty mild.

Okay. I make a motion that we approve the agenda for July 21st, 26th.

All in favor of approving the agenda? Aye. And I will want to talk specifically about item F and G, which are appointments and reappointments. So for the Environmental Leadership Commission, if anybody is here, that is, let me turn to the page. We have two new appointments. Joseph We'll get him to pronounce his name when he stands up if he's here. And Joe is a former city manager, been in that area for 15 years, has a public administration degree. Dylan Walkenberg is a financial planner and a graduate of Michigan State. And the re-employments are Ben Kronk, and Damon Kruger and Joanne Lamar. So let's start with the new appointment. Just stand up and just introduce yourself. Joe, pronounce your name so that we know who you are.

Well, come on up to the podium.

Hey, I'm Joe Gacho. I live at 49132 Plum Tree Drive. I am a Former city manager. I've been managing cities and public administration for about 17 years. Former manager of Royal Oak, Ferndale. I've been with Ypsilanti at the beginning of my career. I'm a master of public administration from Wayne State University. I've helped each of those communities facilitate climate action plans and multiple master land use plans. So I'm happy to be of service.

Interesting that you've come to the township when you served all those cities, so you know township government is best, correct?

It's lower cost. Let me take this all down. I worked for the Michigan Municipal League and personnel for two years. Okay. Fifty years ago. Fifty-five years ago. You're a former city manager with a master's degree in public administration, and you served Ferndale?

Roy Locke and Ypsilanti. Wow.

Welcome. Wow. Wow.

Thank you. I currently have a consulting company, Gacho Civic Advisory, and I'm currently supporting the city of Kiko Harbor. All right, Dylan.

You've earned your soldier's stripes.

Thank you. Dylan, I don't see him here. He's a tall young guy in his 20s. Ben Kronk, just stand up and wave at us or tell us what you want.

WELL, HI, EVERYONE, AND THANK SUPERVISOR KERMEY FOR REAPPOINTING ME TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION. I'VE BEEN ON THE COMMISSION SINCE 2022. I'VE BEEN A RESIDENT OF THE TOWNSHIP SINCE 2013. I LIVE ON GARLAND OVER BY FIVE MILE NORTH OF THE ROAD. AND I HAVE AN UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE FROM MICHIGAN STATE. an MBA from the University of Michigan, and I'm a strategy analyst. So, again, thanks, everyone. Looking forward to continue to serve in the township.

And your last name is pronounced Volkenberg?

No, Kronk.

Like the gym. Kronk.

Yes. Like the gym. Like the gym, that's right.

Mr. Kronk, I've heard very good things about you from Mary Ann McLaren with the work that you've done on the Environmental Leadership Commission, so I'd like to thank you for that.

Well, thanks very much. And I guess we all love Mary Ann as the chairwoman, but certainly we're looking forward to this next chapter in the Environmental Leadership Commission.

So Dylan's not here.

No. So now we're going to move to... Are you set? Okay. I mean, I can go on all night. Right. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for serving. Damon Kruger here. Damon's not here. Joanne Lamar. Oh, all right. And then for, we're going to do some reappointments for the Historic Leadership Commission, which is Wendy Harless. Is she here? Sybil Hunter. You can just, yeah, if you want to do that, say hello.

I wasn't sure if that was the right timing, Chuck. Mr. Supervisor. Hi, my name is Sybil Hunter. I'm part of the Historic District Commission, hopefully again. Our positions are, our focus is to protect and share the history within our township, which I knew we had history, but didn't realize the depth and the amazing history that we do have until I was on the commission. Each one of the positions has a very specific job. We have an architect, We have a preservationist. We have a researcher. And it's very specific. There are two commissioners whose whole job is to be resident. I'm one of them. My job is to ask questions and to be able to say, hey, you know, as a resident, do I really want this? Is this good? Tell me how this works. And to understand what's going on and to be able to share that with other people. So I was pleasantly surprised at all the wonderful things going on. in the township. I have a list of things that we're working on. Did you have any interest in those?

Yeah, as long as it's relatively short.

Yeah, I just got a quick bullet list. We're collaborating for an America 250 grant based on the historical history of our area, which has national recognition, which is pretty exciting. We originally... We did originally cover an area that was particularly historically large and important. It goes from Canton to Northville to Plymouth Township to the city. So there's a lot of history and a lot of interesting things that happened along the way. We're prepping activities to promote the township's bicentennial so that we can, so other people can see how awesome we are. I mean, it's really neat to see what's in the township once you get involved. The Tibbetts barn that created our township is actually in the township. It's not in the city, so the city doesn't even have bragging rights to where their city began. It's within the township. We're working on preserving Shearer Cemetery, which was a family cemetery that had a number of famous people that a lot of them have been moved, but there's still a few that reside there. We're producing podcasts that advertise the hidden history of Plymouth, and the reason I say hidden is I didn't know most of these things until I got to hear the podcast and do some of the research. And we have an HDC, HDC offers a driving guide of historic places around the township of houses that have very specific history and very specific architects that are nationally renowned. And hopefully the, or we received a grant funding to put up a federal bronze plaque at the Phoenix Mills. So that'll be a big, I know it's been recognized before, but now we get federal recognition for our township and the historical background and all that went into it.

Is that perfect? Thank you. Are we planning anything for the, what's the right word, sesquicentennial?

200 years.

Centennial, two and a half centennials.

Mm-hmm.

for the 250th anniversary of Plymouth Township. Is anybody?

We're working on fundraising to try to see if we can have, to try and support some events to promote that.

I've established a fund at the Community Alliance and we'll be publicizing that. So I've contributed to it, but then other people can contribute. We're trying to raise $2,500 for, it'll be used at the museum to put a special display and make a logo for that 200th anniversary of Plymouth Township.

Yep, that would be the America 250.

The one you mentioned first, right?

Program, yeah, yeah, yeah. So thank you for that. And I was remiss in not bringing that up. So thanks for bringing that to everyone's attention, Chuck, because that is a really exciting way to get the ball rolling. Thank you. Thank you.

Doug Willette, are you here? No? All right. So we're done with the consent agenda. We need to have a roll call resolution because we have things on there like water and sewer agreements that require that.

Motion to accept the consent agenda?

Well, I think, okay, so let's see. Do we have to read? Let me see. going to get to the page. Bob, can you bring up the, here it is. There it is. I'm looking for, we just need a motion, but it needs to be a resolution to take Because we have resolutions in here.

Oh, yeah.

So we need to have a resolution to accept the, approve the consent agenda. And I am looking for it.

I don't see it. I don't think it's in the packet.

Okay, so let's just.

Can we not approve the consent agenda and spell out the resolutions that are included in it?

Let's see if I'm missing anything. We don't normally.

Let me look through here carefully.

Got all of these items in here. Okay, hold on. Storm drain. Attorney, help us out here so that we can approve this. not have to redo it. Or we go through each one. We can approve each one if we want to do that.

We can do a resolution to approve the consent agenda and all items within it.

So we just say make that statement? Okay. Which we've done in the past.

Go ahead, John.

All right. Do we have a motion to approve a resolution to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Second from Mark Clinton. All right, now we can do a roll call vote.

Okay. Mark Clinton?

Yes.

Chuck Kermie?

Yes.

Rob Dorshevitz?

Yes.

Kim Gattaca, yes. Sandy Groth? Yes. John Stewart? Yes.

All right. All right. public comment, three minutes.

Good evening, Supervisor Kerrmey and members of the board. The previous administration created several citizens advisory committees for our community residents to have a forum to provide input and guidance by serving on these communities. The Historic District Commission and the Environmental Leadership Commission were the outgrowth of this. ELC was created under ordinance number 1060, amended Amendment number 23 to provide a citizen commission focused on environmental education, stewardship, sustainability, and community outreach for the chartered township of Plymouth. Since its inception in 2019, we have accomplished many of the goals of the commission. We have compiled an action plan that was covering land use, water resources, waste reduction, and municipal operations. We provided written input to the 2026 master plan for land use and an assistant in drafting the township's tree and solar ordinances. We published a resident sustainability tips guide. We hosted several fall colors events, partnered with Plymouth Community Library on speaker servers, brought in experts to our monthly meetings on topics germane to ELC, hosted the township's biggest tree find search, which resulted in us having a cover story on the rock. Along with the township enhancements, we led the effort for Plymouth Township to become a certified Tree City USA, advocated for an EV charging station at the township building, planted native plant seeds across Lake Point Park, Triangle Park, Fire Station 2, and Brentwood Park. On Gulfview Park, supported through developments through a Wayne County Parks millage funding, which includes paved walkways, two rain gardens, native plant borders, bird and butterfly houses. Also, enhancements to Lake Point Park, we planted native species and new trees that was funded through a grant that we received from DTE. We have had local partnerships with Michigan Redleaf, Relief, Friends of the Rouge for Creek cleanup and bug counts, Plymouth Canton Community Schools, including the Township Park mural and Gulfview Park art display, as well as Bosch, creating habitats for pollinators, Plymouth Pollinators, GFL, Consumers Energy, DTE Energy Foundation, and Home Depot. Until last week, I had the privilege of serving as the ELC chair since its inception. When Supervisor Kermie informed me that my term had expired and I would not be reappointed. Over these past years, I have learned much more about our wonderful community and have built lasting friendships. While not all of you were on the board when I was first appointed and reappointed, I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve Plymouth Township in this capacity.

We can't write a ticket. We have to have the police to do that. So we are working the issue. He knows that he's under the microscope. Right. So we'll see if he wiggles out of this one.

Hello, board. My name is Tom Layton. I live at 12125 Hines Court. The last time I was here was December 9th. I... brought a petition from everybody that lives on the court asking for you to work with the city to resolve an issue of sewer gas that is a issue at the cul-de-sac. I have documentation, I have a whole file of emails that I sent as well as communication on phone and in person with Chuck, Patrick, and other people from township as well as the city. I worked with Adam from the city. He also was out there. I've done Freedom of Information Acts and I have heard nothing since I was here last. I did talk to Adam, phone conversation in regards to the issue. I talked to Chuck the very next day after I was here by phone. He actually called me when I was on my way to talk to a plumber. The bottom line is I'm looking for whether or not anybody's looked into it from the township since I presented the cul-de-sac's basic plea for something to be done. The issues are terrible. They range from bad smell to people complaining about headaches, as well as sewer gas flies in their house. The issue, if you can't remember, is that we somehow got hooked up to a high flow system. That high flow system comes from the city. For some reason, they isolated the cul-de-sac to vent the high flow system so that it would work properly. I've contacted engineering companies and they said that is wrong. You're not supposed to use a building or a home for that purpose. Can anybody help you out here? Did anybody meet with the city? Did anybody contact me? I haven't been contacted except from Chuck, one phone call where he told me how to deal with the smell. I don't need that information. I need information on what's going to be done. It's been eight months. Anybody?

Yeah, I've been in your house and in your basement. Yes. And we have talked about this with the city of Plymouth regularly. Okay. And Patrick Feldrath understands the problem, but we have no easy solution. That's why it's going so slow. The easy solution... Well, it's not easy. It would be to dig up the sewer and spend a whole bunch of money. The city would have to do it and make changes. So no one's engineered that yet. So this has been in place since about 1995.

I know when it was in place. I lived there, okay? I've been living with the issue that long. I've tried to resolve it on my own because I thought it was my issue.

It wasn't there in 1995. Yeah, the change to the plumbing. We're not going to engineer it here. It's on the radar screen, but we don't have a solution. So it's going to have to, we don't even know whether it's a township problem yet. We've got the city and the township. The township allowed it, Chuck.

So it is a township problem. We are residents of the township. I'm looking for information. If you can share information from the city with me, I'd deeply appreciate it. I'll add it to my file. All right? This is a file of Freedom of Information Acts. This is a file from other engineers. This is a file that has information from two different plumbing contractors that came and told me the only way it could be resolved is if they move us off of the high flow system. Very simple. It just has to be done. Yeah.

Two or $300,000 worth.

It's a health and safety issue. I said that before. This is gross negligence on the township and the city now that it's been presented to you as well as the city and the county knows and I guess the state knows. So I'm looking to get it resolved. And any information you can share with me, I would appreciate it. We heard you.

And we're listening. We don't have the fix.

Thank you.

Good evening, Supervisor Kerrmey and Board of Trustees. My name is Lisa Capatina. I have served as an election inspector and or election canvasser for the last five years. Over the last several years, there have been a lot of changes to our election process that has made it much more nuanced and often very difficult and challenging for the clerks. So I wanted to come here personally to thank you for actually commend your appointment to Kim Gaedeker for this position. My personal experience with her thus far has been that her professionalism, her willingness to engage with the community, and her communications I've found to be a very positive experience, certainly welcomed and also needed. So thank you, Clerk Gaedica. Congratulations on your appointment. and thank you for serving the citizens of Plymouth in the manner that you have thus far. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good job.

Mary Tavrosi, 46649 Arboretum Circle. I rise today to offer my strong support for the proposed childcare center outdoor play area amendment. And I wanted to make this comment before your vote, just to let you know that I supported along with many other people here tonight. The proposal still requires outdoor play space greater than or equal to six nearby communities, as well as significantly larger than the state minimum requirements. In alignment with the recent proposed changes to the master plan update, I think it's critical that we do everything we can to support young families either just forming here or having already moved here to stay here and having nearby adequate childcare which does not require going outside of this area to have your children at is critical as well as knowing that So many corporations today are requiring people to return to office. So there is more commuting time. There's more folks not working from home anymore. And having the child care facilities right here in our community are vital. Thank you.

I think that kid was supporting you.

Mary Pine, 48 year resident. a mother of five adult children and eight grandchildren. I would say that for any childcare facility, safety has to come first. There's also the issue of that being on the Ann Arbor Road corridor. It looks like the city planners want Plymouth Township to adjust to what they want, and they tried to manipulate with verbiage how they could get what they wanted. They orchestrated quite a group of people that came to the last planning commission meeting. Dennis, after he has tried to intimate that the township doesn't get a say, asked if we could stipulate that that was grass, not gravel, or a parking lot. They said yes, which indicates we do have a say. This is a double-edged sword. They want to make a smaller space. Has it ever occurred to them in making a smaller space, children can dash off into traffic? The people who spoke, for the most part, it was all about the adults and their struggle to find daycare. The children can't speak for themselves. They need to advocate for a better location, tri-park, churches, like other communities. Don't settle for a bad location. One of the people said that they've seen worse. Don't settle for a low bar. This appears to be business oriented. I think possibly this is a franchise that is owned by an equity fund. Now, we've all seen what equity funds have done to hospitals. The last parent to speak had a very good understanding of children. He had two sons. He knew that there was a safety issue, the square footage was a problem, it was not viable. He chose to do what's best for his children, keep them in Canton, and look into another way that has better standards. Don't take the easy way out. I have five additional issues. Plymouth put in Lovers Lane, and now they want us to accommodate them. Nobody wanted that there. With the daycare center there, there's going to be traffic issues and severe safety issues for the children. There also, as a lady said to my husband, times have changed. You're going to put children on display as people stop at the light. You don't want to do that. There is a new master plan, and it looks like immediately that it is the choice to manipulate and go back and make exceptions again. That is not strong leadership. We need planners who work for the Plymouth Township residents, not Lansing, not the city, or their own agenda. McKenna is not serving the township well. Dennis Sapolsky appears to... capitulate to the planners. He needs to be thanks for his service and retired. The new master plan needs to be scrutinized and revised where necessary. The words missing middle are out, but the concepts are in. Leadership that does not consider children's safety demonstrates an extremely low bar. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Mike Tavarozzi. I just wanted to get up and also state I'm in support of the daycare center that's proposed. I think that a lot of the issues that people are talking about as far as on the main road and the zoning requirements can be mitigated multiple ways. I grew up, I went to a daycare center that was on Ford Road, and there's so many daycare centers on main roads around here, I can't count them all, so I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. So I just wanted to get up and say we need a lot more daycare. Obviously people are going out of out of our township to go get that and I think it helps us as far as our property values and everything else if we have more and I think we should be actually looking at trying to work maybe with the city of Plymouth to even get some more space in here maybe with some properties that we could develop with the city itself. So I just wanted to give you my two cents. Thanks. Thank you.

Are you able to hear?

No.

You can't hear? All right. Move that mic up a little bit when you, next person. Oh, it's the fan? Well, let's turn the fan down.

That's a Ken McDonald fan.

THERE WE ARE. THERE WE ARE. THERE WE ARE. AND THEN MOVE THAT MIC AND THEN MOVE THAT MIC AND THEN MOVE THAT MIC A LITTLE BIT UP, MAYBE. A LITTLE BIT UP, MAYBE.

A LITTLE BIT UP, MAYBE. CAN YOU HEAR ME? CAN YOU HEAR ME? CAN YOU HEAR ME? YEAH. YEAH. YEAH. OKAY. OKAY. OKAY. HI. HI. HI. I'M ALLEN MORECKI FROM I'M ALLEN MORECKI FROM I'M ALLEN MORECKI FROM LIVING IN THE CITY. LIVING IN THE CITY. LIVING IN THE CITY. BUT I'M COMING HERE BUT I'M COMING HERE BUT I'M COMING HERE TO SUPPORT THIS AMENDMENT TO SUPPORT THIS AMENDMENT TO SUPPORT THIS AMENDMENT FOR THE, FOR GETTING RID OF FOR THE, FOR GETTING RID OF FOR THE, FOR GETT you know, for infants at that time. So we found a daycare in Northville Township. So there's a lot of commuting quite far away. And I would have loved to have something in the city or in the township. I live very close to Ann Arbor Road. And it's also my understanding that the planning commission's going to look at all of Plymouth Township, not just Ann Arbor Road corridor for the next meeting. The state only requires 1,200 square feet. Maybe that seems small, but you guys are talking about a fixed 3,000 square feet, which kids zero to one year old, they can't really walk anyways. You don't need 500 square feet per child. Many of the commenters last meeting at the Planning Commission meeting also said that you really don't want an acre for the students to run around. They're toddlers. If they fall down, you have to get to them quickly. You don't, they say it's actually unsafe to have that much land for them. So I just, I support this amendment. Also, the more, the less regulations you can have on daycares, you know, there's already a lot of regulations at the state level, but the less you can have at the city level means that there could be more supply of daycares, which could improve the prices and just the availability in general. When I had two kids in daycare, it was, this was in 2022. It was full-time daycare. It was $2,600 a month. So my mortgage is only $1,500. So it was by far my largest expense. So just want to make sure everyone's aware. It's very hard to find. It's expensive. And I hope you guys consider changing this. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. This is my first Plymouth Township meeting I've attended. I'm Nathan Kelber. I promise Cooper is not a prop. He just, I didn't have anywhere else to take him, but I had to come today. This is my first Township meeting. Just saying similar things. I am a parent. I've got a three and a half year old and Cooper here is four months old. Any other people with kids in daycare in this room? So if you haven't had kids in a daycare in a while, it is extraordinarily expensive. And so my cost now is a little over $3,000 per month. So if you do the math on that, $3,000 per month times 12 months, that's $36,000. For a lot of people, that's bigger than a mortgage. Some people, that's two mortgages. But if you're paying for daycare now, you're essentially paying for two mortgages. So more daycare would really be helpful for anybody who has children and also wants to work. So I'm coming to support having another daycare in the city. It also helps to have daycares that are close by because oftentimes you need to take your kids to daycare every day before you go to work. And so to have something close by and to have something that's affordable is a big benefit for parents. And so I ask you to consider this when you're thinking about this proposed daycare location. Thank you.

Bill Pine, 48-year township resident. I hadn't planned on saying anything today, but as you know, I like to talk about analysis. When I talked to the Planning Commission last week, I said, hey, you really have two issues here. You've got the 3,000-square-foot thing, and you've got the Ann Arbor Road corridor thing. By the way, Cooper was great. Good job. The premise of the space isn't really the main issue. I don't know if all you guys are old enough to remember the song, Alice's Restaurant. But if you remember, they started off talking about garbage and ended up talking about the draft. We're talking about 3,000 square feet, but we're really not talking about that. We're talking about the Ann Arbor Road corridor and where it makes sense to have stuff. We just spent a whole bunch of time going through the master plan saying, this is a master plan, except for. And Sandy's brought up the point that the Ann Arbor Road corridor is important to maintain as a business spine. for the township. And you really ought to think serious. I think the 3,000 square foot thing is super, but there are two different resolutions, I think. Is that right? Two different, one for Ann Arbor Road corridor and one for just general, for 3,000 square feet?

Yes, for other.

Yeah. The other, cool. But the question you have to ask yourself is Ann Arbor Road corridor. So food for thought. Thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, I'm Mike Glauber, I'm a Plymouth resident. For the last five years, my wife and I have been driving our two children to the Primrose School of Canton. We were very excited to hear that they were looking to bring the same high quality early childhood education center closer to the Plymouth community. Our daughter thrived in her first year in the Plymouth Canton School in kindergarten last year, and it was no small part to the foundation that she got from the Primrose schools. We struggled to find high quality early childhood education in the Plymouth community, which is what led us that was the case because of how wonderful that school has been for our two children. Over the past years, we've seen that the owners are highly engaged in the community. They bring in first responders as a part of the curriculum. They've involved a local retirement community to bring in for reading to the children for story time, and they are truly wonderful members of the community, and I think they would be wonderful for the city, or sorry, for the Plymouth community. As for the play space, our understanding is the outdoor play space would be almost as large as what our children have. There are many, having experienced Primrose, there are many safety factors that they have. There are multiple gates from where the children play to the public spaces and I'm confident they would have those same safety measures in place in their new childcare center. They even have the Primrose patch where our children got early exposure to gardening and it's brought have continued to this day. As for traffic, I know that's a concern. We actually drive past Main and Arrow Road every single day while we drive all the way down Canton Center to get to the Primrose School in Canton. So we would be actually taking cars off the road or reducing traffic by bringing a child care center closer to where the residents are and I think as of right now, it's been said there's over 20 families that live in Plymouth that are driving to Primrose. If you added Goddard and other schools that are further down, that number would be much larger. So adding something to the community could actually reduce the amount of traffic. We personally could walk to that proposed location, and we are very confident that it would be safe for our children to do so. I'll close with this. I think we should give parents the opportunity to choose where their kids can go. Leave it up to the parents to decide what's safe for their children and give them the opportunity to do that. Every parent has a really difficult decision when they're trying to decide if two parents should continue to work when they have young children. I'm proud to support my wife who has found her calling in education working outside the home. It's incredibly difficult to do that. It's an incredibly difficult decision. And we want to have more opportunities to have the support in the community where we live, rather than going far away to try to get that education for our children. Thank you.

Anyone else? All right. We'll move on to new business, section F. We're going to make some 2026 budget amendments and carry forwards. It's part of the State Budgeting Act. You need to make sure that each line item or each budget is never in a deficit. And Carol Rashan, our finance director, will take us through this.

Okay, good evening, Board. So tonight, we're going to be approving some appropriation and carry-forwards for the general fund, along with recognizing revenue in the general fund.

So... 167. One second, Carol, let's just get there. It's page 167 in the package.

OK, so to start at the beginning, the supervisor's department had an employee that wasn't opt out and had to change to family coverage. So we need to increase the budget for medical insurance for the supervisor's office. In the general government department, we had to pay out an additional $7,500 this year for our unemployment compensation insurance. That was related to a claim from an employee in the parks department. For another general government, the townships portion of the budget that we support, the 35th District Court, increased this year higher than the budget, so we have to bump that up $3,700. When I did the budget carry forwards in first quarter, there was one for general government for the switch renewal project. There's $4,500 that we're carrying forward from fiscal year 2025. In the Building and Grounds Department, the employee was on medical insurance as a couple. That changed to single when a child dropped off at the beginning of the year, so we have a decrease in that budget of $10,600. The police department had an officer retire in the second quarter. They had their sick and vacation paid out. We don't budget for termination, so we had to increase, we need to increase the budget $33,300 for their payout. Again, a carry forward for the police department from fiscal year 2025 for their vehicle up fit. So there's $76,300 that we're carrying forward from fiscal year 2025. Dispatch had an employee retire and that their sick and vacation payout was $22,100. The fire department had a new hire come in and an employee changed from a single coverage to couple during the year. We need to increase their budget $24,300. Land and Building Repairs for Fire, they have had a sprinkler project going on in fiscal year 2025. That needs to carry forward to this year, so it's an additional 17.5 that we're carrying forward from fiscal year 25. The Building Department, had an employee that was opt out on coverage and they needed to pick up a couple. So we need to increase that budget by $13,300. Gulfview Park had expenditures for the Wayne County IGA in the amount of $16,500. And you'll see below that we're going to have revenue to offset that. So we needed to increase what they're going to be spending. And there's also for the park, the upgrade to the bio health pod system at Township Park, that's an additional $11,800. So total general fund appropriations is $236,300. We also have some revenue to recognize. In the general fund, so there is the 2023-2024 park millage. So we have been spending the funds as a reimbursement grant. So we have spent our funds. We're now asking for the $73,200 back from Wayne County. And then to cover the... upgrade at the park for the bio health pod system at Township Park. We received a grant from Bosch to cover a good portion of that of $8,600. So we have total revenue in the general fund of $81,800 for our budget adjustments for second quarter.

Any questions? Do we have a motion?

We have a motion. Thank you, Carol, for the detailed information. I'd like to move that the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees hereby adopt Resolution 2026-07-21-52, authorizing various fiscal year 2026 budget amendments as outlined in the attached.

Second.

Okay, roll call vote. Yes. Chuck Cermy?

Yes.

Sandy Groth? Yes. Bob Dorchevitz? Yes. John Stewart? Yes. Mark Clinton? Yes.

Thank you. There were no changes. This is verbatim what you provided in the packet.

Next item, F2, is Dell computer leases and Microsoft Office 365 subscription renewals. Bob Jenks, our director of IT, will talk. We have a slightly updated, where we changed a number slightly. So make sure you have the new one. And up there is the new one also. All right, Bob, go ahead.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Supervisor, members of the board. So I am requesting your approval for expenditures related to two technology renewals due to the dollar amounts associated with each. The first item is for leasing new desktop computers to replace current computers that are expiring leases. There are two batches totaling 55 new computers. The first batch lease is expiring on July 31st and the second batch is expiring September 30th. The new leases are four year leases with a four year total of up to a bit over $96,000. That's indicated in the packet there. The second item is to renew our current active Microsoft Office 365 licenses. This renewal is for a one-year term with a cost of just over $46,000, as indicated in your packet as well. These are both budgeted items for 2026.

We will be potentially adding to some of these if we as employees come and go and we make adjustments in our licensing. We're trying to optimize our licenses to fit our workforce. Any questions?

Mr. Jenks, thank you for the job that you do. You do a great job. I have a concern about the fact that this is not being done in a timely manner. It was not, we did not solicit bids for this. and the purchasing policy requires bids, a formal bid process. It requires two weeks between bid advertising and bid opening and it requires the requesting department to prepare a memorandum to the township supervisor. This is not the first time this has happened and I'm just bringing it up because I think we need to plan, prepare better so that we are in compliance with the purchasing policy. You're going to say sole source, but there are a lot of people who sell Microsoft.

We did take quotes, right? Yes. And these are brand name, in the case of Microsoft, we are using, are we using an MI deal supplier or state sourced in some cases?

So the computers are my deal. It's already pre-screened? And the Office 365, when we got the, as Supervisor Kermie and I spoke, we got quotes and the my deal quote was more than the one that we're planning to go with. So it was a higher price with my deal.

So we're not going to be taking sealed bids for this stuff?

The point, Mr. Supervisor, is that we have a purchasing policy and we have just ordered computers that on June 30th that to stay out of a July 1st price increase. And I don't understand the point of having a purchasing policy if we're not going to follow it.

Probably needs to be modified. We can modify it, but I can tell you that prior the prior years, this wasn't even brought to the board. So we're listening to you.

Actually, we brought it once before, and it's the same issue, the exact same issue. So I'm not going to vote against it, but I'm just saying, can we please follow the purchasing policy and plan in advance?

All right, we hear you. We're getting the best prices using our consultants. So we will tighten it up, but we don't have a purchasing department. So it's on the department head that has to do all of the work. And we are relying on MI Deal for a lot of our price checks because they've been pre-screened by the state of Michigan and been vetted and have done competitive quoting to get on the MI Deal bid list. which allows smaller organizations like ours to have the purchasing leverage of a large organization, essentially the entire state of Michigan. So we hear you.

In a timely manner, please. I'll make the motion to approve resolution 2026-07-21-53 to adopt the attached public agency agreement between Charter Township of Plymouth. Oops, I'm looking at the Plymouth's authority, I'm sorry. Sorry about that.

F2.

Yeah, let's go back.

Would you like me to read?

You can, yes.

Okay. For the record, this is a renewal and this is your recommendation. Yes. Motion that the Board of Trustees approve the renewal of Township's Bell computer leases consisting of 55 computers for a total four-year cost, not to exceed $97,000.00. Further move that the Board approve the renewal of the Microsoft Office 385 subscription for current active licenses at a one-year cost of $46,227. So... Do we have a second? Second. I have a question.

So these are renewals of four-year-old computers?

Oh, they're releasing new computers. It's new hardware. It's all new. Okay.

I thought I caught my eye. The way it said was phrase.

Okay.

It's not renewal. We're not going to have people using four-year-old computers or eight-year-old computers in four years. Correct. Okay.

All right.

Roll call vote. Chuck Kermy? Yes.

Yes.

Mark Clinton?

Yes.

Sandy Grove? Yes. Bob Dorchevitz? Yes. John Stewart? Yes. Pam Giedecke? Yes. Motion passes.

Thank you. And Mr. Supervisor, by the way, Mr. Jenks, with a huge transition we've been in, I want to thank you. And you've been working very closely with my two IT people, and you can even satisfy the computer genius lawyer in my office, Wade Myers, longtime resident of Plymouth Townships.

Okay, thank you. Item F3, which is the acronym CLEMIS. CLEMIS is moving to a new system of ownership, and we are going to be renewing our contract with them for police data management. And we're going to have Lieutenant Ryan Krebs tell us about this.

GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. GOOD EVENING. SO WHEN CLEMAS FIRST STARTED SO WHEN CLEMAS FIRST STARTED SO WHEN CLEMAS FIRST STARTED 60 YEARS AGO, THEY WERE 60 YEARS AGO, THEY WERE 60 YEARS AGO, THEY WERE THEIR OWN ENTITY. THEIR OWN ENTITY. THEIR OWN ENTITY. THAT HAS CHANGED. THAT HAS CHANGED. THAT HAS CHANGED. NOW IT'S THE CLEMAS AUTHORITY, NOW IT'S THE CLEMAS AUTHORITY, NOW IT'S THE CLEMAS AUTHORITY, WHICH IS THEIR OWN ENTITY. WHICH IS THEIR OWN ENTITY. WHICH IS THEIR OWN ENTITY. AND AS SUCH, THE PARTICIPANTS AND AS SUCH, THE PARTICIPANTS AND AS SUCH, THE PARTICIPAN with the authority to be able to continue to access the services that they provide. We are heavily dependent on the services, both the police and the fire, and our dispatch center as well when it comes to the climate services that are available. including our property management system, our report writing, CAD calls, dispatching, things of that sort. So we are extremely dependent on their services. So right now there's 260 agencies that participate using the Clemis system. Extremely beneficial when it comes to investigative aspects to be able to go into that and access the database to name search and whatever the case may be on that. So I come to you tonight to seeking approval to be able to enter into this agreement with the Clements Authority. It is important to note that this agreement is going to be renewing on an annual basis moving forward. There is the ability to cancel as long as you serve them with notice about 30 days before the end of the term. We could certainly talk about the costs It's certainly not free. There's an expensive cost that goes with it. In one of the documents that was provided was the order or quote for the police and for the fire department. I would like to update a couple of the numbers that were listed on the document that I provided.

So is that page 180?

IF YOU GO TO THE PARTICIPATION AGREEMENT, I THINK IT'S IN MY PACKAGE HERE, IT'S ONE OF THE FIRST PAGES. BUT I CAN JUST VERBALIZE SOME OF THE THINGS. SO IN THE QUOTE, IN THE ORDER THAT THEY PROVIDED, THEY LISTED US AS HAVING 27 SWORN PERSONNEL. AND THEY GOT THAT INFORMATION FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. ACTUALLY, WE'RE GOING TO BE AT ABOUT 30. IDEALLY, WHEN WE'RE FULL STAFF, THAT'S GOING TO BE 33. Right now, we do have 12 wireless MDCs, the computers that we have in our cars, plus two other portable units that we have. We will be looking to add another one of those for 13. So I estimate with our all-in expense on a yearly basis, we're going to be around $39,400 to participate in that. And once we go up to As I said, once we go up to 33, we're going to be at that dollar mark. Another thing it is important to note, and you have to keep an eye on that in the future, is they have built in there a 5% increase year over year. There have been years where that has increased 5%. It's only increased 3%. But I'm certainly hopeful with the authority, they'll be more financially sensitive and a little more aware of their pricing structure. If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer those.

How do we control their price?

Do we have a vote on the board? So we are not going to have a vote on the board. We're just essentially going with the public agency agreements. We're not going to have a vote.

5% is a very aggressive annual inflation built in. So let's work on that. Should be telling all your colleagues that it's not a good idea to be 5%. It's too high. Maybe they could index it to real inflation, although that's a gamble. But I don't know, 5%, contracts that have riders like that Not good long term. Yeah, we got other ones. Yeah. Seems to be private industry would never tolerate that. In fact, they want you to reduce the price. The industry that I came from, the auto industry, you reduce the price by 5% a year.

One additional thing that I just forgot. So historically, they have been submitting bills to us on a quarterly basis. BUT MY UNDERSTANDING IS THAT QUARTERLY BASIS BILLING IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN EFFECTIVE OCTOBER 1ST OF 2026. SO WE ARE GOING TO BE RECEIVING ONE BILL THROUGHOUT THE YEAR AND HAVING TO MAKE THAT LARGE PAYMENT.

LUMP SUM?

YES.

AND UP TO NOW IT'S BEEN MONTHLY? IT'S BEEN QUARTERLY. QUARTERLY, I'M SORRY. YES. WE DON'T HAVE A LOT OF CHOICES, BUT IT'S A GOOD SYSTEM.

Yeah, unfortunately, we just don't have any other options at this point in time to be able to access the vast amount of data that we have access to right now.

So who is going to sign this? It's going to be me?

Yes. I think that the police chief is a signer as well as the fire chief as well.

Okay, do we have a motion?

Mr. Supervisor, I move to approve resolution 2026-07-21-53 to adopt the attached public agency agreement between Charter Township of Plymouth and the Clemmons Authority.

Second.

Okay, we'll call vote. Kim Gatica, yes. John Stewart?

Yes.

Sandy Groth? Yes. Mark Clinton?

Yes.

Bob Dostoevitz.

Yes. About me.

Oh, yeah. Chuck Kermy. Sorry about that.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Thank you. Mr. Supervisor, I want to thank you. Lieutenant Krebs has reassured me. The stoplight has been out at unbelievable Ann Arbor Trail and Hagerty for days. It's blinking. It took me a half an hour to drive from Lake Point to Township Hall. The stoplight has been out. So I'm, you know, traffic control and accidents, it's an accident waiting to happen.

We will get, Wayne County, I'm sure has it on their list, but I think they need some motivation. They're creating a traffic hazard, a safety hazard.

You assured me that Wayne County has been notified.

Yes, they have.

I'd get that in writing multiple times.

You said they fixed it and then it reverted? Sometimes it's So it's totally out of control. All right. We're on it. We will. I urge everybody to call road crew and get a service number. Yeah. No, we call the road Wayne County road crew. Is it, it's 888, isn't it? 888 Road Crew. Those letters.

County Commissioner Terry Marecki.

Get it, no, get it into the system first. So that way they have Marecki or anyone else can track it. It's the, they have a tracking system for all complaints. You can do it by phone and a more difficult way is to do it by logging into their website for this road crew.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next item is police also. It's a regular memorandum of understanding with First Step, which is a shelter for battered people. And they are headquartered in Plymouth Township. And Police Chief James Nytel will tell us about this.

Thank you, Mr. Supervisor. Four years ago, we entered Memorandum of Understanding with First Step. Prior to that, we met with them. We met with their staff. We talked about the services that they provide for domestic violence and criminal sexual conduct survivors. We felt that the services, they're a nonprofit, but they have advocates that can help survivors that need assistance after these type of incidents. We also toured their Wayne facility where they have housing. for individuals that might be put out of their house because of a domestic violence or criminal sexual assault. They also have areas where they can maintain animals. Many times folks that are in this situation don't want to leave the situation because of an animal that's involved, so they develop that process. Our partnership has really blossomed with First Step. Not only do they assist us with cases here in the township, we are not immune to these type of cases, They're great advocates for us. We reach out to them directly when we have these type of cases, these type of investigations, and they're able to help our residents. We have also worked with them and provided them with active assailant training for their facility here in Plymouth Township, as well as the employees at the Wayne facility. We've provided that as well. So it's been a very strong relationship with them. We have communications. We meet with them. on an annual basis and we discuss the cases that come across and the advocates that are able to help our residents. So I bring this to you as a, again, as a memo of understanding that we will be working closely with them. They have also provided us with training. We had our officers, they came to our roll calls so that we did not incur overtime. And they gave us training on strangulation. One example is that. And we had a case within two weeks. One of the officers, because of the training he received from First Step, was able to identify signs of strangulation on a particular incident, which resulted with criminal charges. So that training was significant and very important. Our officers provided free by First Step and their advocates. Thank you. Any questions?

Any questions? All right, let's have a motion, please.

I move to approve resolution 2026-07-21-54 to adopt the attached memorandum of understanding between the Charter Township of Plymouth and First Step.

Second. Okay, roll call vote. Chuck Kerming? Yes. John Stewart?

Yes.

Sandy Grove? Yes. Mark Clinton? Yes. Bob Dorchevitz? Yes. Kim Gatica? Yes. Motion passes.

Thank you. Thank you. I was also going to mention, Mr. Supervisor, that I was in communication with Dylan Wecklingerberg, who was appointed today. He's a friend of my son's, graduate of Catholic Central, Michigan State. Great young man, so I applaud the board for bringing him on, but he got stuck at work, so he did want to apologize that he couldn't be here today. He's a financial advisor, but... just very intelligent, well-educated, super young man who's, you know, one of our residents, was raised in Canton, went to All Saints, and like I said, and I coached him, so he's just a great young man, so thank you for that.

I like that he was trapped at work. That's a good thing. Yes. Next item is item five, F5. It's... to accept the resignation of Trustee Jen Buckley, who has written us and said that she is resigning because she's moving out of Plymouth Township and you must live in Plymouth Township in order to be on the Plymouth Township Board. There's a process in Michigan law that lets this board appoint a replacement, but the first step is accepting the resignation of that person, Jennifer Buckley. So do we have any discussion or does anybody wanna make a motion?

Since I'm on a roll, how about if I make the motion?

Hold on, somebody, he's got a question.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Who wants to make the motion?

I would. I move that the Board of Trustees hereby accepts the resignation of Jen Buckley from the Charter Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees effective immediately.

We have a second. Second. Second by Mark Clinton.

All right, roll call. Mark Clinton.

Yes.

Sandy Groth. Yes. Dr. Shevitz.

Yes.

Kim Gadeka. Yes. John Stewart. Yes. And Chuck Kermy.

Yes.

Motion passes.

So here's the exciting part. Once you have a vacancy, which we've concluded or accepted here, the resignation, which has started the clock, then the board can appoint someone in generally the way it works in most communities. The first person nominated gets a second and gets four votes. That is the person. Some people, we've tried it both ways. We've done resumes. We've done it. Will Fashionway, which we're going to hopefully do tonight. And hopefully we will get the right person that has the mix that we need and talent on this board to be able to move us forward and help me and the others here to do the right thing and keep this place the great place that it is to live and work. So do we have any nominations?

I would like to. Do you want a motion or do you want a nomination?

A motion to nominate. All right. Help us with attorney. What is the right word?

Yeah, we should do a motion. Each one should be my motion. Then we'll have an up or down call and see if it's successful.

There's words here. Are we going to know what our choices are?

I'm sorry. We're looking motion for a specific person.

Yes. We've done this before. It's been several times. Well, I think Bob Dorshowitz replaced you using this method. So that's what we're doing. So do we have any motion? Do we have to make a motion?

Yes, I'd like to make a motion. And before I make the motion, I'd like to state that I had three people actually contact me personally who expressed an interest in this, and I told them all that we hadn't established a procedure. But I've done a lot of research on the candidates, and I would like to move that the Board of Trustees appoint Mr. William Ikes to the Chartered Township of Plymouth Board of Trustees, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Jen Buckley for the remainder of her term expiring November 20th, 28. The appointment shall take effect immediately. And I'm willing to highlight my reasons if people are interested in hearing them.

We need a second, right? Then you can. Second. Okay, now you can say your reasons.

Mr. Eich has been a resident of Plymouth Township for over 25 years. He currently serves quite effectively as a planning commissioner. He always goes above and beyond with his research and in-depth analysis, always looking out for the best interest of the residents. He served as the project manager for the Township Park Playscape upgrades at the request of Supervisor Kermy. I know he's worked with our former clerk and Clerk Gattaca in an effort to assist with election responsibilities. He is a product of our very own school system, attending Byrd Elementary, West Middle School, and Plymouth-Salem High School, and he has proven to me throughout my many dealings with him that he's honest, committed, and willing to devote whatever time is needed to ensure the best interests of our community and our residents.

So do you want to come? Before I make a second, I think... Oh, go ahead. I think we're moving too fast. I think we're moving too fast here.

It's the speed we moved when we replaced you. Same thing. It's just the same. It's the same process.

Well, I don't know. It seems like I've never. It's kind of interesting. I've never even got a resume. I haven't seen anything, nothing. Well, I take it back. I got one resume. But two other people, we don't even have a resume. So my suggestion would be. Let's wait for another two weeks. Let's wait for another month and figure out if there's other people who would like to work, run for trustee.

It's been going, it's just, you're just going way too fast. So you're saying use the resume system we have. Okay. I can think of one in the nineties. We use this process. Uh, Steve Mann was here by this process. No, Jim Buckley was resume. Um, then we've done it both ways is my point. And this is the way I want to do it. I think it's better for the township. We tried the resume thing and we had that wild clerk selection process. So I wanna try this one this time. So I'm urging you to help me out and support it. And when we had the clerk situation, It was a total surprise when we did a flip with Jennifer Buckley over the weekend. So stuff always happens. I understand that. So I want to go this way. We have a motion and a second. Do we have anything else to say? Does anybody else have anything to say before we vote?

I think that our recent history has proven that we can find ourselves deadlocked on a three to three decision. And I don't think it's in the best interest of the residents for us to deadlock on issues when we're capable of appointing someone to step in and be the seventh vote, however it happens to be. That's just my opinion.

One 30 second comment. There's abundant precedent for appointing someone like this, this process. You mean throughout the state? There's abundant precedent for appointing someone tonight like this. Now I owe it to my family to mention two factors. work experience and an MBA out of the Ross School of Business for a 62 year old who has worked with his hands and devoted time to contribute to this community. And that's Bill Ikes. So I call the question to vote.

You got to have a roll call.

Okay. Bob Dershowitz.

You're going to make me go first, huh?

I can switch you, if you'd like.

We can switch you, whatever. Okay. You said yes? Yes. Okay.

John Stewart? Yes. Chuck Cermy? Yes. Mark Clinton?

No.

Kim Gatica? Yes. Sandy Groth? Yes. Motion passes.

All right. Congratulations. Come to the podium, Mr. Eichs, so at least people can see who you are.

would you consider a motion to make this unanimous? That is protocol, that is custom. I offered the same motion for Jen Buckley and the supervisor denied it.

You want it to me? I never got a resume. I never talked with him. I heard you. I know. We would have a lunch, talk to see if you want to run for trustees. I never talked with him, and I never got a resume. So absolutely, positively, no.

Okay. I just wanted to bring the issue up to making it unanimous, as I did with Jen Buckley.

So I'm sorry that he didn't talk to you. I thought that he had talked to everyone by phone, at least. No, you hadn't. All right. All right.

You have to do the oath.

Let's do the oath.

Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Bill Ikes.

I, Bill Ikes.

Do solemnly swear.

Do solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the State of Michigan.

The Constitution of the State of Michigan.

And the laws, ordinances, and policies of the Charter Township of Plymouth.

And the laws, ordinances, and policies of the Charter Township of Plymouth.

I will faithfully perform the duties for the trustee.

I will faithfully perform the duties for the trustee.

For the Charter Township of Plymouth.

For the Charter Township of Plymouth.

Michigan.

Michigan.

Being ever mindful that my service.

Being ever mindful that my service.

Is a reflection on the Township of Plymouth.

Is a reflection on the Township of Plymouth.

And I will discharge these duties according to the best of my abilities.

and I will discharge these duties according to the best of my abilities.

So help me God.

So help me God. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you.

So Bill, you need to come up here and you're going to be voting on the next item. Yes.

Even if you're not prepared. He's well prepared. I know he is. He's on the planning commission. I know.

The next item is the text amendment for child care center outdoor play areas and give you a little background on this. There's the Ann Arbor Road corridor which runs from Eccles Road to about Kroger and part of it we jointly share with the city of Plymouth and they've been REQUEST, OUR GUIDELINE IS TO HAVE COMMON ZONING REQUIREMENTS IN THE CORRIDOR BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE TOWNSHIP. SO THEY WANT THIS CHANGE MADE AND HAVE HAD. IT'S BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER TWO YEARS. WE'VE NOODLED THIS A GREAT DEAL ON THE PLANNING COMMISSION. YOU HEARD TONIGHT SOME PEOPLE HAVE MIXED FEELINGS. I BELIEVE IN A MARKET APPROACH which is letting parents decide. But Liz Hart, who's our McKenna consulting planner, will give some background on this. And then we will have the opportunity to discuss it and vote. Liz Hart, go ahead.

Thank you, Supervisor Kerrmey. Good evening, Board of Trustees. Before you tonight are two related text amendments to the zoning ordinance regarding outdoor play area requirements for childcare centers. The amendments apply to both Article 14, which is the Ann Arbor Road corridor district, and Article 28, which is special provisions in the township and has the general childcare standards. The proposal would replace the current requirement of 500 square feet of outdoor play area per child with a fixed minimum outdoor play area of 3,000 square feet. This change would apply township-wide, so that means all zoning districts that child care centers are allowed in. This does not include the agriculture district or the public lands district, so all other districts including the Ann Arbor Road Corridor District. Discussion of this amendment originated with a proposal by the city of Plymouth to amend its childcare regulations within the ARC district. Because the city of Plymouth and the Plymouth township share the ARC zoning ordinance, the proposal prompted a review of the applicable childcare standards and whether the township wished to maintain consistency with the city's regulations. In addition, staff also identified that the township's general childcare regulations contain the same requirement of the 500 square feet of outdoor play area per child. The purpose of this amendment is to remove a zoning standard that can become unnecessarily restrictive while continuing to provide adequate outdoor recreation space for children. Under the current ordinances, the amount of required outdoor play area increases with every additional child a facility is licensed to serve. For example, a center licensed for 20 children must provide 10,000 square feet of outdoor play space, while a center licensed for 50 children must provide 25,000 square feet, more than a half acre dedicated solely to outdoor play space. Staff also reviewed state licensing regulations surrounding communities and current planning practices. We found that the Plymouth townships requirement are significantly more restrictive than both the state of Michigan and neighboring communities. State regulations require a minimum of 1,200 square feet of outdoor play space and allow licensing officials to require additional space when warranted based on enrollment. In most nearby communities, either follow the state standard or require between 100 and 150 square feet per child, making Plymouth Township an outlier. It's also important to recognize that what this amendment does not do, it does not eliminate outdoor play areas, It does not reduce state licensing requirements, and it does not change where child care centers are permitted. And it also does not eliminate the special land use approval process. Every child care center will still be required to obtain a special land use approval from the Planning Commission. This allows the Planning Commission to evaluate site-specific issues such as traffic circulation, impact, buffering, screening, landscaping, and compatibility with surrounding properties. All facilities also must continue to comply with state licensing requirements. This amendment does try to strike an appropriate balance. It continues to require the require a substantial outdoor play area that remains well above the state minimum, while reducing a zoning requirement that may unnecessarily limit opportunities for new or expanded childcare centers. The Planning Commission held separate public hearings on each amendment on July 15th. Public comments were received regarding Article 14, the Ann Arbor Road corridor, while no public comments were received regarding Article 28, the special provisions. Following those public hearings, the Planning Commission recommended approval of Article 14 Amendment by a vote of four to three, and have recommended approval of the Article 18 Amendment unanimously by a vote of seven to zero. Staff also recommends approval of the proposed text amendments to Articles 14 and 28. I'm happy to take any additional questions from the board that they may have, and thank you for listening.

Tell us the state minimum, I think it's 1,200, and what is this tax amendment going to make the minimum?

State minimum is 1,200 square feet total. And then it does allow state licensing officials to increase that based on enrollment if they find fit. The township in both articles 14 and 28 have a minimum requirement of 500 square feet per child. These text amendments would eliminate that requirement and just set a minimum of 3,000 square feet for a child care center.

So that's two and a, not quite two and a half times the state minimum. Yes. And you think we're competitive with the surrounding communities?

Yes, we're more restrictive than surrounding communities, which is, we do have, child care centers that do not meet the standard. It's not known how they were approved or if maybe they just did things without coming to the township.

They exist here in Plymouth Township already? Yes. Sorry. Okay. Any other comments, questions here?

Can you tell us how this acts in respect to the Ann Arbor Road corridor as a planning commissioner we talked about the fact that the Ann Arbor Road corridor really does not allow for childcare facilities. It's a special land use. So what you're telling us is if this is passed, if anyone wants to have another one in the Ann Arbor Road corridor, they still have to come before the Planning Commission for special land use?

Yes. Okay.

Any other questions or comments here? Go ahead, John.

Well, I'd like to face the issue up front, safety and traffic. And I'm a big proponent of traffic studies and the chief knows that. But I want to put a little context here. Is this the primrose of Canton? Is this the couple who I think there's a gentleman in the back who, because the precedent in Canton is a beautiful facility and there's a Primrose facility in Canton. Now, I must disclose that my wife has been a volunteer there for six years, Beth Stewart. And she read through the materials and she has given me a recommendation. Everyone wants to facilitate younger families coming to Plymouth Township. Okay, now, 60 seconds ago, I said face the issue up front, and that is safety, and traffic at this location. I did not hear any mention of the Canton facility. Am I correct that this is the same Primrose? Oh, hold on a minute. My wife has instructed me to encourage you to come and talk about Primrose. Because it's a well...

This is just a text amendment. It could be X, Y, Z company.

Okay.

So, but this company, I think Primrose is looking at that location is what I've heard, but that is not what we're discussing here. Who is doing, if this happens, it'll all be in the city of Plymouth with their planning commission, not Plymouth township. because Right Aid is on the corner of Main Street and Ann Arbor Road, and it's been closed for a couple of years. And they're obviously trying to sell it, and they're looking for a buyer.

Now, I have to disclose, I have gone to, having an office two blocks up from that Right Aid location, I have gone to that drugstore for 40 years. And in the last couple of years, I had to adjust and go to CVS. Now, the important issue is that the traffic is backed up beyond my law office on Main Street and Ann Arbor Road most every day. You don't wanna come down there at four o'clock in the afternoon.

So- That is heading south or north?

Both.

Both ways.

Well, and especially heading south. I mean, seriously, the traffic is backed up from Ann Arbor Road up north on Main Street for at least three city blocks. And it's, well, I mean, the chief doesn't wanna talk about traffic studies in the city, but...

I think some of that will get mitigated when the construction is completed on M-14 and the other roads. The north-south roads in Plymouth Township are being inundated with traffic, especially Haggerty and Beck Road. So I think that will maybe be reduced after November. That's just my hypothesis because the amount of traffic that you're seeing is astronomical and it isn't because we have new businesses or new residents.

Ms. Hart and McKenna, I'm all about traffic studies.

All right, any other comments or questions? So do we have a motion? Does anybody want to make a motion?

A motion to adopt Resolution 2026-07-21-55, authorizing adoption of text amendments to Zoning Ordinance Number 99, amending Articles 14 and 28 to revise the minimum outdoor play area requirements for children's centers as recommended by the Planning Commission.

Second. Second, Bob Dorshevitz.

Okay. Roll call vote. Sandy Grove? No. Jon Stewart? Yes. Bob Dorchevitz? Yes. Mark Quinton?

No.

Chuck Cermy?

Yes.

Kim Gadeka?

Yes. And we have one more.

Oh, and Bill Eichs?

Yes. So what is that?

There's only two noes, so it's back to two. So motion passes.

All right. Now we're to public comment again on any subject that you want to talk about.

I won't sign in again. This is something I would like to say when you're considering something that has to do with children. It's an old saying, location, location, location. There is something else I'd like to say. Patience is a virtue. If you go ahead and want to put a daycare center in there, not the right location, and you need to have some patience, be responsible, find the right place. And this is just, I don't know if they've left, they have, some of them, and all of you older people know this. Parenthood contains, entails sacrifice. So I have children who use daycare centers. I pick them up from daycare centers. So you're gonna get sacrifice on the other end too. This is just a funny story, but our son really wanted to go to the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, which he did. We had his diploma in our den and we referred to it as our second house. Then the Vietnamese government wanted it, so it's probably moldy and disintegrated now. But to be able to feel close to our grandchildren and to keep up with him, we would call long distance. This is before WhatsApp. Our phone bill was more than our mortgage payment. But we did the right thing. Our grandchildren knew us. We knew our son was okay. Parenthood entails sacrifice. That's what you buy into when you become a parent. But please look at the location if you're going to approve a daycare center. Thank you. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Hi, board. My name's Dale Bernhardt. the subject that I'm going to talk about, but I personally think that the daycare center, the old Rite Aid building, is a terrible location. I wouldn't take my kids there. But anyways, I want to talk briefly about hyperscale data centers, and I am fully aware that Senator Baer came and spoke at the last meeting about it, and also that the Planning Commission is going to be working, I think, with the Zoning Board to come up with some recommendations. I spent the last two Tuesday evenings at Saline Township Hall and watched Oracle roll over that township. It was frustrating, it was maddening, it was saddening. It was just very sad. Those poor farmers there, they didn't want this data center and this thing is just huge. But I came out with really some key takeaways that I want to pass on. First is simple moratorium that we had discussed and I think we had tried before is not going to work. You're not going to go against a trillion dollar organization like Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Meta and expect to win. We have to have something rock solid. Also, they came in and said, this is Oracle saying that it's going to be $4.3 billion, so we want a tax, 50% tax abatement, basically reduction on that. Then they came in about six weeks later and said, oh, no, that number is $44 billion, which means that the data center is probably only going to be there 10 or 12 years. The township is not going to get the tax money that they thought that they did. So these things sound really good when they're rolled out, but when it comes right down to the end, you're not going to get what you want. The other is I ask the board to put a sense of urgency in this. I know that Senator Behr said that, well, the state is going to be working on this. It's going to take them a long time, okay? So I would start on this right away. My other thing is we have bordering communities. that could build a set a data center right next to us. It is going to affect our township and our residents that are going to be right next to that. Now, I don't know if we can tell another community to say, Hey, No data center a mile within the border? I don't know. But I would also suggest that we don't work by ourselves with this. We pull in Northvale Township, we pull in Canton Township, we pull in Livonia and ourselves, and we come up with a rock solid program here to keep a data center out and keep it off of our border. The other thing, a key takeaway was, We have an attorney that needs to work with us. The attorney, I'm sorry, at Saline Township, it was obvious he was not working for Saline Township. He was working for some other powers. And also for the zoning board, be careful of your language. Oracle brought this up, exclusionary zoning. And when I pulled up, what is exclusionary zoning? In Michigan, local governments are governed by statutory guidelines prohibiting them from totally excluding certain lawful and necessary land uses. My point being, be careful of our zoning language because Oracle will use that against you or any of the others, and they will sue you big time. In conclusion, I just ask the boards to protect our quality of life and property values. Data centers are short-lived. Make sure we aren't stuck with their contamination that they've put on the ground for 10 or 12 years and that we're stuck with the cleanup The other thing I thought was really interesting, we've heard for years that everybody has to be green. We have to be careful of contamination and energy usage. You don't hear that anymore. The big powers want data centers. So thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Mary Weidel, Plymouth Township resident on Fellows Hill Drive. Just listening to the daycare presentation and discussion today, I do see how traffic could be an issue. I did spend a number of years taking our kids to child time on Beck Road near the railroad, and that had been just... dreadful to try and get out of that complex and onto Beck Road, you know, after work. So there's, I can see there's points to the concern about the traffic at the corner where Fuel Bright Aid is for this new proposal. But listening to the board talk about it today and Mr. Stewart's insight that he had from family personal experience, I was kind of wondering why with that personal connection that you wouldn't recuse yourself from voting on this because of the company connection. So that's my only comment.

It's not a conflict of interest. He doesn't have a financial interest in the company.

For the record, my wife volunteered to read there. I'm encouraging everybody to volunteer and read in every community. My wife volunteered to read there.

It's not about the position. It's the connection. So that was my point.

The motion wasn't about the place, it was actually to amend a policy. So it had nothing to do with who was gonna be buying the property.

Mary Tavarozzi, once again. So today, once again, this board is operating with little to no transparency. Jennifer Buckley provided a conditional resignation letter. I would encourage Bob, if he can find it, to bring it back up so you could see that Jennifer did not actually finally resign with that letter. There were a bunch of conditions in it, and no additional further public comment was provided. However, the board apparently went forward under that conditional resignation letter And the supervisor and apparently some, but not all of the individual trustees did their own research, their own investigation, their own vetting, if you will, on some others to be unnamed, I guess. Trustee growth mentioned at least receiving three initial inquiries and possibly some resumes, et cetera. And there was even a candidate tonight that got up and put forth themselves as a candidate, something that was not acknowledged at all in the process tonight. This has nothing to do with Bill. I've seen Bill everywhere. I know who Bill is. But it just is frustrating that we continue to see the supervisor in particular, but aided and abetted by other board members, wanting to have control of a process and provide as little transparency to the citizens as possible. It's also beyond ironic that the supervisor cites the clerk replacement process as a debacle when his delays and inaction and his attempts to personally control the outcome is what led in large part to the debacle that we witnessed here, as well as the disorganization and the unfortunate recriminations that happened from that process to this board. The citizens of Plymouth Township deserve more transparency. We deserve better. Thank you.

One comment about Buckley's resignation. Her portion where she caveated there is completely redundant with the state law, the state law works, you can retract your resignation at any time before it's accepted. So that wording in there did not really mean anything. You can change your mind at will up to the minute of the township board voting.

She doesn't live here anymore.

Yeah, she moved away. So that's what drove the primary, that drove the resignation. And yes, we want to be transparent, but we also want to be efficient. So we're trying to balance both of those. Since we're talking about data centers, Please, I'm sorry, come to the, if you have something to tell me, come up there, we can do that.

You can have both.

We'll work on both.

Good.

Let's hear something about the status of data centers at the Planning Commission. We have two Planning Commission members here, and we have the Planning Consultant, so I'd like to take a couple of minutes and just tell us where we're at because we need to understand there's a lot of work that has to be done.

In June of 2026, we did have a work session with the Planning Commission going over the different types of data centers that could possibly come to Plymouth and just state requirement or what's happening around the state and what could possibly happen to Plymouth. We plan on having another discussion in August with the Planning Commission specifically for giving them a draft tax ordinance that we have drafted for data centers specifically for Plymouth Township. So they'll have the opportunity to review that and provide us with comments to make any amendments that they see appropriate and then from there we will schedule a public hearing with the Planning Commission to adopt an ordinance for data centers and then that will come to the board.

The point that was made about collaborating or being consistent with surrounding communities is a good one. It's kind of like what we're doing with the ARC zoning for child care. So we need to work on that with our surrounding communities. What I see as a potential easy use for an abandoned automotive assembly plant is a data center. And we've got a lot of them. or other million square foot plus manufacturing plants. For example, the Livonia transmission plant, I think, is a million five square feet. So that's a good thought. So we have two other people here. Do you guys have anything to say quickly?

I do. You can learn a lot by benchmarking other communities. Number one, I've already met with Bayer Turnbull and Supervisor Abbo in Northville Township. Turnbull is not Fort. They have a moratorium in place. Abbo was... wanted to learn more. And I took them through the technical risks on our bodies, our minds, our hearts. They're bad for livestock. They're bad for human beings. I've gone out and talked to Howell Township, which has pushed back on one. It has not been approved. I actually met with a planning commissioner out there to learn exactly what they did. So they have a litany, a good blueprint that we are sharing with the planning commission to go through it. Our moratorium, we talked about it right back in June. We all favor extending it, number one, but we really have to get the meat on the bones in what we put into the ordinance, which involves a lot of requirements, a lot of specifications, not only for the equipment you put in to the designs, the blueprints, as well as the monitoring to protect the surrounding citizens and livestock.

One thing is MTA says that a moratorium, the way we have it and the way most other townships have it, is not enforceable. So we may need to tighten that down because right now somebody that has deep pockets could sweep it aside.

We don't need to speak about that publicly, thank you. We also need to think about what Senator Bayer told us, some of the things that the state is working on and some of the restrictions that they're working to put in place to protect local communities. That should be a part of our process.

Okay, any more comments from the audience? Any more from the board? We can go down the line if that's what you wish.

John or... No, very simple. I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve. And as the supervisor pointed out to me, it's obvious I love serving as your trustee. I'm also very grateful for... My colleagues, we need to work together. I've been in many contentious situations as a practicing attorney and in the state legislature for six years. And some of the most unfortunate ones have occurred here in the township in the last couple of years. So let's go onward and forward and try to be positive.

I just want to ask Supervisor Kerrmey that you do everything you can to ensure compliance on all of those issues on Gold Arbor. This has been going on for a long, long time and it needs to stop.

I visited there.

I know you did, but I want something done about it. It's not enough.

I'm done. Just want to remind everyone, early voting starts July 25th, the Saturday, and runs through August 2nd. here right in this room. And for those who have received your absentee ballots, if you've not turned them in, please turn them in. You can either leave them at the drop box here outside of the Township Hall. You can come to the clerk's counter and we have a drop box. You can also go to Port Street where the other drop box is located. And also for early voting, you can actually come in during the scheduled times from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. again, July 25th through August 2nd. and actually run your ballot through the tabulator if you would like to do so. The other thing to make everybody aware is that the Saturday before the election on August 4, our clerk's office will be open from 8 AM to 4 PM. And in terms of how many ballots we have received so far out of the nearly actually over 9,000 ballots that we've now mailed out to people who requested them, we've received 2,716 ballots back. So again, please try to send them back if you haven't, encourage your neighbors if they haven't sent it back to send them back sooner than later, because we are also participating in early processing of our absentee ballot count board. And they will convene on Monday, August 3rd from nine until 8 p.m. We may conclude earlier if we get all the ballots that we've received to date processed prior to 8 p.m. And then they'll come back the next day on election day on August 4th, starting at 12 o'clock to process any that have come in since that Monday. So, and I just wanted to also just thank Joe for coming up and presenting and expressing interest to be on the, Board of Trustees. I've also talked to some other people as well and just would encourage you and others to stay engaged with the Township Board and with the community and just appreciate your interest to serve. Thank you.

There'll be more opportunities. Go ahead, Bob. The only thing I have is we're getting... A lot of complaints of people not getting their water bills and their tax bills in the post office is just not performing well. So I kind of just got to encourage people, you can sign up to get your water bill delivered to you electronically or auto pay that. I would encourage you to do that. And if you don't get, if you don't have a, Set a mental note if you don't ever tax bill by July 4th for summer and by Christmas for winter to call us because you know and I got a stack this thick of return from the post office invalid address and they weren't invalid addresses they were we mailed them again because it was to the same person in the same address so

That's it. So remember that even if you don't receive a water bill or a tax bill, you are still responsible for it. So some people say, well, if you didn't send it to me, I don't have to pay it. That isn't the way it works. And people, especially those under 30, who throw away everything they get in their mailbox, that is a very risky idea. Because you can get your home taken away from you by the county treasurer for nonpayment of taxes. It only takes two years of not paying, then the process starts.

My turn? Yes. Joe and Richard, thank you for coming out, and thank you for having lunch and understanding. I really appreciate it. I wish I could get both of you, because I think it would be really great people. And like we talked about, It's only two years. In fact, it's sooner than that, maybe even sooner. So please continue to figure it out and work. Please don't give up. That's my point.

Thank you. All right. I just have a few announcements. Number one is we spent, pardon?

Oh.

No, Bill doesn't need to talk tonight. He's new. Do you want to say something, Bill? You already said something about planning.

I do. I love the township. It's a pleasure to serve through working with the police on traffic studies to improve things, working with the Wayne County Commissioner, with the clerk's office, with the treasurer's office, with trustees, and to Trustee Clinton, I apologize for not reaching out. Happy to have lunch at any time. My bio has not changed from when I was appointed as a planning commissioner. It's identical. So it's an oversight on my part. So please accept my apology.

All right. This room, sound system and acoustics. Are you able to hear? Are you able to understand? Is it an improvement? You mean YouTube? All right. We've got to figure out. Well, YouTube. Well, these mics are designed like a cone, so you don't have to get too close to them. So should I pay the supplier or not? Okay. All right. A couple of other things here. First of all, the sidewalk replacement program is delayed, but it has started. They have 25 days to complete it. And the objective is to complete it by the end of August so that we can invoice and you have 30 days to pay before it shows up on your tax bill. It's always a cantankerous project because many, many issues with sprinklers and things like that. It's very difficult. But we're trying to balance cost and performance. And it is a challenge because many of these contractors have way more work than they want to do. That's always a problem. I know many of you, if you do contracting at home, you've seen the same thing. The sidewalk gap fix on Annaber Road at the CSX where we have the road closed. is moving, but not as fast as we'd like. They found two structures there, which are storm structures, which have been plugged and covered, which is great. Maybe that's why there was always water gathering at the base of the westbound lane for years. They were not on the drawing, so it was a surprise. But that's what happens when you're doing renovation. Many of you have seen fiber companies digging up your front yards. It's going to accelerate. I think we have five or six companies that are planning to do this. And only one or two have even started. So it's going to happen over and over again. The township does not control these people. It's a state law called the Metro Act. We put a spot on the website which explains what right away is and who the contacts are to call if they're not remediating and restoring your yard properly. But I urge you to communicate directly with them. Um, the township has other than me, uh, saying get out there and please fix it. Uh, we don't have control over them. So you've got to take care of your own property and ensure that they do it correctly to meet your requirements. So we have a person in the that's trying to coordinate a lot of these calls in the Department of Public Works. Um, And we're getting a lot of them. They're doing fiber optic to improve your gaming and your work-at-home experience to be able to upload extremely large files. So the kid that's in the basement will be happier, and the person at home doing CAD work will also be happier, I think. All right. For legal services, we're working on it. We got delayed, obviously. So we want to have that out in a couple of weeks or less and give people. We'll talk to you. I don't know. I'd like to give people 45 days or at least to look at it and have it out there. I know there was one. Oh, the next meeting is August 25. So it's a month away. All right. All right. Motion for adjournment. Second? Any second? All in favor of adjournment? Aye. Adjourned at 8.35 p.m.